Christmas Pictures, black background...

How cute are these? I love the ones of her reading and trying to get the ornament from Santa the best. Wanna know a secret? That Santa arm is actually ME in a red sleeve. Shhhh....

More Christmas Pictures!

... and these are the ones with the snowy backdrop. I love the first one the best. I know there is a slight chance I might be just a smidgen biased, but my little girl is just gorgeous!

Christmas Pictures!

I had a bajillion pictures taken again this Christmas! And then I couldn't decide, so I bought them all of course! These are the ones with the Christmas tree background...

Breakfast With Santa!

This past Saturday was the annual Breakfast with Santa at the mall. Karen & I brought all the cousins and 2 of Emma's little BFFs joined us as well. The kids were all really well behaved while waiting in line. And then the big guy in the red suit showed up! Emma was so excited to point him out, but was unsure about actually approaching. TJ ran right up for a hug and Lucy, of course Lucy, had to inspect his beard for authenticity. Emma DID eventually run up for a hug with Sophia & Hayden but of course my memory card ended up being full right at that point, so I missed getting the shot! Figures. Anyway, the kids all got a goody bag full of trinkets, a muffin, and a juice pouch for breakfast. Then they got to paint ceramic ornaments. Emma made me laugh as she painted her CHRISTMAS ornament to look like a HALLOWEEN jack o' lantern! That kid is funny. After that, Karen waited in line for 45 minutes (ridiculous) to get balloon animals and face painting for all the munchkins while we started their scavenger hunt. That's always lots of fun. Each kid is given a map with breakfast and the have to visit 8 stores to get a stamp & a goody. When they complete the whole thing, they turned it in for a prize - a little Santa mug with candy canes. We finished up the morning with a photo at Santa's workshop. I had originally told Katie & Lucy that they were welcome to come along but would not be expected to sit for a picture. Karen told them I lied and to get up there and smile. Lol. So we got them all in a group shot. It took forever to get the final pictures (some kind of computer glitch) but ended up getting some free copies for our troubles. Not too shabby for the morning.... ornaments, breakfast, goodies, treats, balloon animals, face painting, extra pictures, and it didn't cost a penny. That's what I call a good morning!

Ducky Fun!

Emma & I met up with Erin and Sophia at Ford Park a couple days ago. The duck were very cooperative this time and the girls had a blast feeding them lots of bread scraps. We had the DST time change last week, so it got cooler and darker earlier, but that also meant the ducks were out and ready to be fed rather than hiding out on the island like they do during hot days. We had a good time.

Park Fun!

I brought TJ & Mikayla along with Emma & I to a park playdate last week. The swings were the big hit, as usual. Surprise surprise. "Push me higher Mommy! Higher!!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had a good Halloween this year. After all her choices, Emma decided to stick with the Belle dress for the actual big event. TJ was a skeleton. Creepy lil kid! We went over to Tim & Jenny's house to trick-or-treat with their kids and Emma had a blast. She loves running around with all her bigger cousins. There were 2 houses though where there were teenagers wielding cardboard chainsaws and gory masks. They scared the bejeezus out of Katie (which was HILARIOUS). But we were 3 feet behind at that point and Emma freaked out. She climbed up me and into my arms supe rfast and decided that she was done with Halloween. So we called it a night. She still got more than enough candy for one little girl and we had lots of fun. To top it all off, Tim cooked an early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the trimmings. Yum! So we had a delicious meal before heading out. Totally shames my pizza dinner from last year's Halloween.